{"id":58,"date":"2005-02-27T18:14:00","date_gmt":"2005-02-28T01:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=58"},"modified":"2021-05-31T19:50:43","modified_gmt":"2021-05-31T23:50:43","slug":"freedom-necessity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/58","title":{"rendered":"Freedom & Necessity"},"content":{"rendered":"

Freedom & Necessity<\/em> (1997) Steven Brust<\/a> and Emma Bull<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Delving back into Brust section of my bookshelves, I came back with Freedom and Necessity<\/em>, a book that I remember as complicated, although good. And since I remembered nothing of the plot, I figured it was a good candidate for re-reading.<\/p>\n

I have to admit that as much as I like this novel, reading it makes me feel stupid.<\/p>\n

There are tons of historical, political, and philosophical references that, if I were better educated, I am sure would have made the reading even deeper. Unfortunately, my political and philosophical education is sorely lacking, and my knowledge of history is spotty–some times and subjects I’m fairly familiar with, while my others I don’t have a clue.<\/p>\n

The story, set in late 1849 is written as a compilation of letters, journal entries, and newspaper articles. It’s a style that takes some getting used to, but gives a strange sense of authenticity. Though as a regular letter writer, I have to wonder how the characters found the time to write everything down in the detail they did!<\/p>\n

Interestingly, the book leads me to wonder about the line between fantasy and other types of fiction, in that there is very little “traditional fantasy” to be found. I have not read any other books by Emma Bull, but the style of this book is strikingly different from other books by Steven Brust I have read. Not to say that he has a specific style–anyone who has read the Khavvren books and the Vlad Taltos books should know better–but there is little familiar in this book to his other books. <\/p>\n

This is, as I said, a very good book, but it is not the first Steven Brust book I would recommend to someone–it’s too different from his other books for someone to judge whether they liked his style or not. But I do recommend it. Though if you’re like me, it may create a desire to learn more about history, philosophy, and political science.
\nRating: 7\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Freedom & Necessity (1997) Steven Brust and Emma Bull Delving back into Brust section of my bookshelves, I came back with Freedom and Necessity, a book that I remember as complicated, although good. And since I remembered nothing of the plot, I figured it was a good candidate for re-reading. I have to admit that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2,291],"tags":[250,129],"class_list":["post-58","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fantasy","category-paper","tag-emma-bull","tag-steven-brust"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-W","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":244,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/244","url_meta":{"origin":58,"position":0},"title":"War for the Oaks","author":"Michelle","date":"May 8, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"War for the Oaks (1987) Emma Bull Wow. I've been bypassing this book for years. Initially, because wasn't on the shelves. Then when the reprint came out, because the cover made it look like something I wouldn't like. Boy was I wrong. And I shouldn't have been, because I liked\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "9\/10"","block_context":{"text":"9\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/9-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/05\/War-for-the-Oaks.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2800,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/2800","url_meta":{"origin":58,"position":1},"title":"The Desecrator","author":"Michelle","date":"February 12, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"The Desecrator (2011) Steven Brust This is a short story set in Dragaera. It features both Daymar and the Dzur Zungaron\/Telnan. It's only a dollar! If you've read Steven Brust, you know you want it! Published by Tor","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/desecrator.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1260,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/1260","url_meta":{"origin":58,"position":2},"title":"Jhegaala","author":"Michelle","date":"July 31, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Jhegaala (2008) Steven Brust First things first, I love Steven Brust, and I love the Vlad Taltos books. That said, this is not anywhere close to being one of my favorite books in the series. Jhegalla is set between the events of Phoenix and Athyra. We learn some of what\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/Jhegaala.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/10","url_meta":{"origin":58,"position":3},"title":"Lord of Castle Black","author":"Michelle","date":"January 23, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Lord of Castle Black, Book Two of The Viscount of Adrilankha, by Steven Brust Tor (2003) I knew that it was going to be a good book when I was laughing out loud reading the first page of the introduction. \"We have been informed by those to whom we have\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1562,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/1562","url_meta":{"origin":58,"position":4},"title":"Phoenix Guards","author":"Michelle","date":"December 30, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Phoenix Guards (1991) Steven Brust Not feeling up to starting anything new (and hoping for a big pile of Christmas books) I decided to reread Steven Brust's Phoenix Guards I love that book.","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":389,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/389","url_meta":{"origin":58,"position":5},"title":"Phoenix Guards","author":"Michelle","date":"June 7, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Phoenix Guards (1991) Steven Brust In the mood for re-reading favorites, I just finished Phoenix Guards. Phoenix Guards is one of the books that falls into my \"pretty much perfect\" category.","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}